Most Recent Blog Posts

• Homeless in 2010 Homeless in 2010

  • From: Ray Fournier
  • Description:

    At the end of April I suddenly found myself homeless.   Put all my stuff into a storage unit and moved into my

    car.  Luckily I had a friend that let me put my phone line in at his place so I was able to stay in business.  At first it

    was a little tough trying to figure out where to sleep for the night.  It's not like the old days when you could just park at

    the beach and stay all night.  Nowdays they close the parks at dusk and make you move along so I had to find something else

    to do.  I started parking outside gas stations and repair shops after dark and leaving at daybreak to go to the beach

    I've been able to find a couple of abandoned pieces of property in the woods where I stay at night.  Talk about pitch black,

    it's as black as can be when it's cloudy out, which seems to be most of the time, lol.  With my black car I'm pretty well

    hidden in there in the mornings as I make myself some coffee and breakfast before I leave.  My old Crown Vic has a really

    large trunk.  I can put most of my camping stuff on the trunk shelf and still have a lot of space left for customers luggage.

     I've learned to keep myself pretty well organized to clean up and put things away as soon as I'm done.

    A couple times a week I stay at a campground in the middle of the island for $10 a night.  What a cold May and June we had, I

    didn't think summer was ever going to get here.  At least it's the one place where I feel like I can keep coming back to all

    day without having to constanly change locations after doing my calls.  They really only allow you to stay seven days a month

    but I can stretch it a couple extra days if I have to.  The one bad thing about it is the Navy runway directly in line one

    mile away.  Those jets really scream and look like they're almost touching the trees directly overhead.  They practice in the

    afternoons and sometimes just before midnite.  If someone calls me on the phone I have to wait for them to pass before I can

    hear what they're saying.  Around here they call it "the sound of freedom". 

    I spent a lot of time at the storage unit trying to organize my stuff.  Everything was packed into one storage unit so tight

    I didn't have room to do anything so I rented another small unit.  The two units still didn't leave me enough room to really

    spread things out so I ended up getting a garage sized unit.  That worked out pretty well because I could have my stuff

    spread out and just close the door and leave when I got a call instead of having to throw everything back inside when I had

    to work.  It's taken about three months but I finally got everything into a more organized jumble now, lol.

    I also spent a lot of time roaming around to different beaches and talking to a lot of different people.  Being that I was

    born and raised on the island here I felt a lot like a historian telling people about how things use to be and how much

    things have changed.  I didn't like to stay too long in one place and was driving around quite a bit from one end of the

    island to the other, about 40 miles one way.  It was costing me a lot more in fuel than I had been paying in rent.  It's a

    good thing my business picked up quite a bit but not enough to rent another place.  Without having rent anymore I was able to

    make enough for my insurance downpayment to stay in business and I was able to catch up on all my bills and paid off my

    former roommates to keep them out of my hair.  I thought I was going to struggle all summer to catch up on everything but I

    was able to do it in about a month.  I still have one old debt I owe a friend and was hoping to pay him in one lump payment

    but I guess I'll have to start making monthly payments to him for a few months.  Glad he hasn't hassled me about it but I

    still feel bad about it.

    It's been a great adventure being homeless and I've seen a lot of wonderful wildlife in action too.  There's sure a lot of

    eagles on the island now, along with deer and rabbits.  One night I came upon a great horned owl just standing in the middle

    of the road.  It was facing away from me and at first I thought it was a brown paper bag.  I stopped to check it out and when

    this big owl face turned around to look at me I decided to back away and leave it alone.  I still had to inch me car up to it

    until it finally flew away.  I thought maybe it was stunned from being hit by a car but it's feathers were in nice shape and

    that big white V on it's face sure looked neat.  Down at the dock one day there were some crows harrassing an eagle until it

    started flying away.  The crows chased it down the beach aways until it was pretty high in the sky.  Then the eagle made a

    dive bomb right down towards the pier in front of me.  I thought it was going to land on the railing and it was so cool when

    it spread out its wings and had these big old drumsticks outstretched.  It flew over the one pier and under the pier next to

    it to grabbed a pigeon from of the beach and took off again.  It was the most awesome thing I had ever seen.

    In July I ran into an old acquaintance that I knew when I was driving taxi on the island in 2003.  At that time he was at the

    office and had his first attack that sent him to the hospital.  He says I saved his life because the last thing he remembered

    before he hit the ground was me saying that we better call 911.  The next thing he knew he was waking up in the aid car. 

    This year he was in the hopital three times within the couple months before he caught up with me at the ferry dock.  He

    flagged me down and asked me to go have a cup of coffee with him.  He said he wasn't feeling very well and wanted me to

    follow him home to make sure he made it.  When he found out I was homeless he asked if I could stay with him and help him out

    for the month. 

    He has bad emphasima and could hardly walk ten steps without getting out of breath.  His place was a disaster area so the

    first thing I had to do was clean up his kitchen and I started making his meals for him.  It took all month but we finally

    got the rest of his place more organized too.  Each week I kept telling him he seemed to be slowly getting better and he was

    glad for the encouragement.  He says he doesn't think he would have made it through the month if I hadn't come along to help.

     He had resigned himself to being near death and had accepted that.  I've taken him to a few medical appointments and he's

    gotten well enough that he gets out and about on his own again.  He is still on oxygen all the time and has some bad moments

    where he doesn't want me to leave until he gets his breath.  I could only live at his place for a few weeks and now I'm back

    to living in the woods again but I was able to stay with him during the worst of it.  The retirement place he's at complained

    that I had been living there too long so now I leave at night and come back during the day, so technically I'm not living

    here.  After this month he hopes to be well enough to manage everything on his own again and he'll probably sell me his truck

    and camper for cheap and I can get on with my own life again.

  • Blog post
  • 4 weeks ago
  • Views: 177
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• A Small Introduction A Small Introduction

  • From: Liam Hatchell
  • Description:

    I've not been iRacing long, couple of months at least - but I've been signed up since late 2008.

    It's only recently I've been taking to the track more often in what is widely regarded as the most advanced simulator for four-wheeled vehicles to date.

     

    My online racing career spans right to the present from September 12th 2008. Before that, I was a teenager racing Gran Turismo and ToCA on a gamepad. My wheel wasn't great; I had a Madcatz Xbox 360 wheel that turned a riveting 270 degrees lock-to-lock. Not pleasant! Needless to say, after half a year of incredibly frequent racing (maybe 4 times a week in a professional league for rFactor), it was time to upgrade. It was then that I bought my Logitech G25.

     

    I do admit, I wasn't keen on iRacing way back then. I didn't like the way races were run, I didn't like the physics (yes...) and I didn't like the safety rating system. I'd raced rFactor so many times, I just couldn't finish a race here.

     

    Another year passes and I begin to grow bored of rFactor's poor and wrongly-praised tyre physics. I wasn't getting much satisfaction from winning races left, right and centre (well not quite, but I had a string of podium finishes of over twenty with no DNF's, but that became boring too). And so, in April/May 2010 I rejoined iRacing to be greeted with a whole host of super-quick guys and found myself learning a whole new learning curve. The car felt perfect, like I would drive any other car. It was predictable, controllable...I just wasn't 'quick' in the status I'd presumed to be in rFactor. I loved it. I loved learning it all again. I loved battling in the middle of the pack, keeping out of trouble and seeing my safety rating go up. If I'd had a poor race, spinning off or hitting another car or a wall, I'd see that safety rating drop and it would annoy me, and therefore I would go at it even harder than before to build it back up.

     

    Now, all I need to say is that defending a position and winning a race in iRacing means much more to me than it did in rFactor, or any other sim. I get the adrenaline, I get the desire to push and I get the desire to defend my position and gain more positions no matter what it takes.

     

    I'm an iRacer. 

  • Blog post
  • 4 weeks ago
  • Views: 69
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• ;o ;o

  • From: Sergei Kuznetsov
  • Description:

    Play 4 fun

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
  • Views: 150
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• i have not skip ' barber ' lim i have not skip ' barber ' lime rock!!!

  • From: Ludovic Lefevre
  • Description:

    Another day for another post and almost another victory. After totally missed indianapolis, and doing a lot of mistake in the first race i made yesterday on lime rock with the skip.

    I feel like i have to try again and hope i would make a result. After a start at the second place. I was on attack, but unfortunately, a lapper made me loose a lot of time. I had to go on harder, and was time from time reducing the gap between me and the first, alejandro. But unfortunately for him, he made a mistake at 15 lap from the goal.

    I was now first, i continued to attack for almost five lap; and as i was ten second before the second. I have made a end of race very slow.

    So here it is, last season it was my first win ever, and it was in late model from oval. Now i am really proud to have made my first victory one a road track.

     

    and this week it's brandy!!!

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
  • Views: 214
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• Indy 500 a hard dream Indy 500 a hard dream

  • From: Ludovic Lefevre
  • Description:

    So it was hard in class c. Even if i choose daniel set because i felt more comfortable with it. There was many crash, and i was fourth by 25 laps. Unfortunately i made a mistake while pitting, and did not change my tires. I was hoping a yellow flag to save my tires and my race and it didn't happen. No, by hte way it happen and i did cause it and i am terribly sorry. I hope i didn't touch anything but my car started spinning, and i couldn't manage anything. My tires were totally out...

    My car wrecked there was no way to repaire it, even if i wait at least almost half an hour towing in vain...

    But it was a great time, not the best time i had. But that's race and all folks!!

     

    

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
  • Views: 137
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• On the road again! On the road again!

  • From: Ludovic Lefevre
  • Description:

    After a good season in late model with one victory and a lot of podium. I thought it could be great to start a road season, while i would be learning to drive the truck.

    So here i am in skip barber, i was thinking it could be great to learn single seat formula. I really enjoy my first race at virginia and discovered summit which i like very much.

    I made a lot of mistake yesterday but even finish at a disapointing place the 4th, but what a fight with raoul. It's very hard to overtake.

    So now i am looking forward brands hatch and will add some media as soos as possible. I think that i can restart a film i had in head which calls "itself inside the head of a sim driver."

    Although i also really like the post of steve, and i agree to him when he said that it was a game... But what a game

    so much fight and a lot of driver with a lot of respect...

    thank you all

    see you on the track and news from inside soon i have now enough great fight to illustrate my passion.

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
  • Views: 117
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• hi hi

  • From: Dustin McGrew
  • Description:

    hi

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
  • Views: 203
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• The Eternal Backmarker... The Eternal Backmarker...

  • From: Dan Segolsson
  • Description:

    Hi.

    I've been simracing since 2007, started with VGP on the Race07 platform, got hooked on www.swedishsimracers.com where I soon joined their entry league. SSR GT Club on GTR2. Strictly Road racing, no ovals.

    Raced in that sprintrace format for a season, then joined the large GTR2 league, now with longer races, variable weather, pitstops etc. Man that was a lot to keep in mind :D

    Then after a while I got invited to the first public wave of iRacing, way before fasttrack became a concept. So basically I thrudged my way through the licenses, the Radical being my main goal, before I got to that, the Riley was announced  ... Being a long term Fan of ALMS & Prototypes I jumped at it, bought it way before I could race it. 

    I ran a full season in it in Div 10, and actually won the division championship, not from being particularly fast, I'm stuck somewhere around 1500 in iRating, but from driving one race per week and not DNF:ing.

    This brings me to the Backmarker note of the post, In all the time I've raced in leagues and the few races I've done here, I've never won a race! I've won a championship, but never a race. I'm the guy who starts somewhere in the back, mostly stays out of trouble but more often than not ends up a lap down to the podium. Basically the very definition of a Backmarker.

    More often than not it created sort of lonely races where you are stuck in a pace where you can't quite reach the guys in front, and the faster guys behind slowly getting closer for lapping.

    

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    But it's still fun! It also became a lot more fun as I took the step and went triple screen... 

    

     

     

     

    Here's a snip from the Daytona 2.4 that I ran:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvs_-XNpF5A

    Now if only all these straps could bounce and move it would be even cooler 

     

    So that's some notes from a Backmarker, we may be slow, but we can still have fun racing!

    /Dan

  • Blog post
  • 6 months ago
  • Views: 407
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• The Wheel and Lime Rock arrive The Wheel and Lime Rock arrive....

  • From: Robert Mahoney
  • Description:

    Awesome the UPS man bring my wheel by in the afternoon and I get it all setup. Since the Solstice is moving to Lime Rock that evening I decide to test there while I am working on fine tuning my wheel to suit me. Setting up my G27 went pretty smooth. I had already been reading the forums and I had a good idea what everything needed to be set at. All in all i had my wheel pretty much in sync with me within about 20 mins. 

    I then decide to work on getting my speed up at Lime Rock. All I had been doing was puttering around the track to make sure I liked the wheel settings up to this point. I run a good number of laps and have what I feel is a nice smooth line that does decent time. So then I go check out the forums again to see what people are saying about a good time for Lime Rock. Yep what i thought was a good time was not all that good...go figure. I then found a few replays of people at the track to watch their line and watch their shift points. I figured out shift points was hurting my time a ton. So back to the track I go.

    Now did I mention that for a good time at Lime rock in this Solstice you apparently need to be good at drifting? That is what i feels like anyway lol. So a drifting we will go. That night I was able to get into 3 races. Finished toward the front in all of them and actually lead for for about 7 laps. I finished 2nd in that one. Now to do some more time trial and hopefully get out of this Solstice. I do not like this car at all. I have tested other cars on the same tracks as I have this one and the other ones just feel better even with base setups. 

     

    Till next time...zoom..zoom

  • Blog post
  • 6 months ago
  • Views: 300

• Learning the Ropes Learning the Ropes

  • From: Robert Mahoney
  • Description:

    So I started Iracing less then a week ago. I am currently living in SIN as far as the Iracing world goes. I am using a gamepad. Yes I know i will be exiled for saying so. I wanted to just check things out an decide. Well I played one day and ordered my wheel(should be here tomorrow). I have run in a few races. I just made sure to fall out of line ASAP and fall to the back and just ride around. I did not want to actually race anyone since I do not have great control of the car in my current setup. So tomorrow once I test a bit with the new wheel I can actually start racing guys if my car is up to speed. So wish me luck and I hope to see you on the track.

    More later.

  • Blog post
  • 6 months ago
  • Views: 315
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• late model the fight is on.... late model the fight is on....

  • From: Ludovic Lefevre
  • Description:

    So here i come again, in this blog...

    A great fight is running on in late model. I am now fifth in my series ' division (7 today but i haven't race yet this week. And i am first with almost one hundred points more htan second in my series' division in Time trial. Although this three last week were very hard with a lot of fight.

    Some blocking with one guy who is in my division too and who's got more than 352 incidents, and who was very angry against me, because i made a mistake touching him. But he was one second slower than me and was zigzagging, and i decided to take all the risk to gain the third place hopping i could get back to second at least.

    I have not wi again but i have made a lot of podium, almost second place. This year i am at 50% of top 5 in oval. I do believe that's good for my first real season in late.

    I would alos thanks rusty for his setup,i am very grateful . And i would also thank michael Boardman for being such a great opponent we're in ight michael i saw you were 4 as i was 5 last week on late. Hope to see you again on the track. I hope i won't make the same mistake i did last time loosing my second place in the last corner...

    But it was fun...

  • Blog post
  • 6 months ago
  • Views: 173
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• My First Win My First Win

  • From: Ludovic Lefevre
  • Description:

    I never thought i could win a race, and it happened yesterday on USA Speedway, a good race without any mistakes. I lead every 50 laps and i was really amazed of being so fast. I lapped more than 10 cars, and was even fighting with kimmo.

    Now i know that i can win and i am ready to race and win others race.

  • Blog post
  • 7 months ago
  • Views: 338

• Inizia l'avventura in iRacing. Inizia l'avventura in iRacing..

  • From: Gianluca Altieri
  • Description:

    Dopo un breve periodo durato meno di un mese per ambientarmi domani.. 2/2/2010 inizia la mia prima "vera" stagione in iRacing..
    Sabato sera, con ben 2 giorni di anticipo..  ho conquistato la patente D tramite il fast track.. ovvero raggiungendo 4.0 come livello di Safety Rating ( che è un indicatore che misura quanti incidenti si fanno). La mia prima piccola soddisfazione in iRacing, sperando ne arrivino altre.
    Seguendo il consiglio di piloti esperti da domani quindi girerò con la Skip Barber Formula 2000.
    
    Il primo circuito che affronterò sarà Infineon, che a primo acchitto ho trovato molto ostico. Una serie di sali e scendi senza riuscire a vedere la curva successiva che mi ha tirato fuori più madonne che giri puliti. Fra l'altro confrontando i tempi ottenuti.. 1:53:9 con quelli di Massimiliano (compagno di avventure agli esordi in Pontiac Solstice) ne esce fuori che sono circa 6 secondi più lento di lui.. e questo è assolutamente deprimente. 
    Stasera si prevede almeno 1 ora di pratica.. nella speranza che con un pò di costanza si riesca ad abbassare 3-4 secondi.. il minimo per non fare delle gran belle figure di merda domani all'esordio.

  • Blog post
  • 7 months ago
  • Views: 210
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• Small progress update Small progress update

  • From: Robert Björkman
  • Description:

    This weekend I got down to some more planning and some brainstorming about certain things. However it seems difficult to solve the issue of animations. So maybe its time move it down one notch on the ambition scale and just go with illustrations of what I´m trying to explain. Got some sessions in aswell and got some nice replays out of them. I also put them in my videoedeting software, so now there is atleast a first draft of the intro.

    Hopefully soon I can start doing the first chapter, but I now realize that its alot of work before I reach the end.

    Marcus Ericsson is driving an F1 for Brawn for the first time today at Jerez. Will be very exciting to see how that goes.

    Cya on the track

    Rob

     

           

  • Blog post
  • 9 months ago
  • Views: 574
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• The making of the basic traini The making of the basic training video

  • From: Robert Björkman
  • Description:

    Finally some time over! Last 6 months have been busy, both with real racing and school. I have been working as race engineer and driver coach in a Formula Renault team and in a team runing in the Swedish touring car championship. At univeristy I have completed my Bachelor of science in Mechanical engineering and started my Masters studies in International project management.

    I started with iRacing a 14 months ago and have made a number of videoguides for rookies, so now when winter is approaching I can finally start planning next video. I got a few requests during last 6 months for a basic driver training video. Now ive read Speed secrets series by Ross Bentley a long time ago when I was still an active driver myself.  I have also watched Skip Barbers movie Going Faster but now I have read and watched these again after all these years and found alot of things that I need to work on myself, so maybe its not that basic afterall. =)

    Step 1: Was making a plan on what content should be included.This was actually quite hard and as you can see its not quite finished. Ive made som comments here and there aswell. The problem I faced was that I dont know how to make animations which would be very nice to have to explain certain things. Another problem is also the chapter dividing. Should I make one part and release it or just make it into one long movie?

    Step 2: Getting some nice iRacing footage, this ive already started and I try and take a few replays here and there when im racing myself. so dont be surprised if your in the video if you have raced me the last couple of days. ;)

    If you havent seen any of the other guides have a look at http://members.iracing.com/iforum/thread.jspa?threadID=13174&tstart=0

    The bad things in those is the quality of video and sond, however I have upgraded my computer since last video so now I run everything on max which should help alot.

     

    Ok back to studying financial management and a cup of coffee. Hopefully I can start putting a few things toghether this weekend so I have somewhere to start from.

     

    Have nice day

    Yours Rob

     

    Basic training video plan

    Basic Driving

    1.       Controls 

    -          Tires (Traction vs Load)

    -          Steering  (Animation: 9 and 3 o´klock positions on steering wheel and smooth inputs)

    -          Brake  (Graph showing optimal braking together with pedal input animation) (importance of straight line braking)

    -          Throttle (Smooth squeezing motion pedal animation)(Don’t let off, one smooth motion)

    2.       Shifting

    -          Short shifting

    -          Downshifting (Graph showing when and where)

    -          Blip

    3.       Trail braking

    -          Tires (Traction vs load again)

    -          Entry graph (When and where to brake)

    4.       Cornering technique

    -          Graphs and animations showing correct lines

    -          Turn in, apex, exit

    5.       Passing

    -          Correct passing

    6.       Comfort zone

    7.       Visualization

    8.       Consistency

    9.       100%

    10.   Practicing

    11.   Qualifying

    12.   Race

     

  • Blog post
  • 10 months ago
  • Views: 802

• Week 2 – Dallara Indycar at In Week 2 – Dallara Indycar at Indianapolis Oval

  • From: Iain Mabbott
  • Description:

    http://blog.popabawa.net/2009/11/20/week-2-dallara-indycar-at-indianapolis-oval/

  • Blog post
  • 10 months ago
  • Views: 392
  • Not yet rated

• Themes update slowly Themes update slowly

  • From: Kevin Wilson
  • Description:

    Themes are taking for ever to udpate, have no idea if my changes are correct.

  • Blog post
  • 11 months ago
  • Views: 296
  • Not yet rated

• Media not working Media not working

  • From: Kevin Wilson
  • Description:

    Seems both Video and Audio are stalling before uploading, always preparing. I'll try again later.

  • Blog post
  • 11 months ago
  • Views: 269
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• Welcome Welcome

  • From: Kevin Wilson
  • Description:

    To my blog,

    First Blog on iRacig world. There did need to be another comunity source besides the forums. This might suffice nicely.

  • Blog post
  • 11 months ago
  • Views: 237
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• FOV FOV

  • From: Bruce Morse
  • Description:

    I have no experience driving any of the cars that we have in sim until we got the VW.  Now I can honestly say something is wrong with the FOV.  I sit in my VW and the perspective is a setting of 92 of my view in car.  The problem is if I set my view to what I really see in my real car I feel like I am in the back seat in iRacing.  To get the proper perspective of what I should see out of the cockpit I have to set the FOV to 65.  I cant even see the side view mirror at 65 rather than the rear view.

      I am finding this to be very annoying. It never bothered me until I got the VW  for me to actually compare to real life.  It is definitely diminishing my immersion level when the 2 point of views don't match.  Is there a way to get the correct perspective in both because I sure haven't found it.

    Edit:  Did some more testing last night with the FOV and am actually starting to like the 92 setting in iRacing.  I seem to be able to see the racing line better.  It is throwing my timing off as I am so used to driving with a 65 FOV.  I find it much more enjoyable to turn off the virtual and use the actual mirrors now that we can adjust them.  

    It does seem to vary by car though, for one 92 gives you a bad backseat view as does the LM.  The SR8 has the same backseat feeling also as does the Skippy.

    Very strange everything seems to be different for every car.  

  • Blog post
  • 11 months ago
  • Views: 911
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